I'm Slightly Embarrassed

I haven't been to the grocery store in weeks, and I really have no idea what/how I've been eating the last couple weeks.  On Sunday I had to scrounge for the last box of pasta, only jar of sauce, and cheese in the back of the fridge to make a pasta dish for a potluck dinner with friends.  How boring is pasta?  The rest of the food was pretty good, however, and the homemade valentines to go along with dinner were a crack up.  We each took turns drawing one out of a bag, and here's what I got:

On Monday, I was motivated to hit the store and make some stuff.  It was cold here (read, 55 degrees) and I wanted soup.  I also decided to make some whoopie pies, since I haven't baked in forever.  I've never made whoopie pies, but they couldn't be that hard, right?

Turns out there are a jillion receipes, so I picked one that seemed doable, though maybe slightly ambitious for my first attempt - Dark Chocolate Pies with Toasted Almond Creme.  

It was kind of disastrous.  I elected to visit the smaller grocery store for ingredients, and they didn't have any unsweetened baking chocolate, only semisweet.  I think that was mistake number one.  Cakes were too sweet, even for me.  Secondly, how is one supposed to form round, beautiful cakes that are the same size and fit together later? I guess I need to buy one of these.  I also decidedly do not like cinnamon in my chocolate.  

See how terrible these look?  At least they were moist.  

The filling was kind of a lot of work, steeping almonds in milk, heating stuff, lots of mixing.  It just turned into a yellow gel.  Looks gross, eh?

The finished product. They actually taste okay.  Not great by any means, but edible.  Next time I'm sticking with a classic cake and a marshmallow or cream cheese easy filling.  

I did make lasagna soup again, slightly tweaking the spices and doing crushed instead of diced tomatoes.  I really hate cooked tomato chunks.  Cooked the pasta separately this time so it doesn't get soggy in the leftovers.  Super delicious!